Endoscopy Suite at EWMSC to reduce bed space demands

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh officially declared the ward open on Monday, although it has been operating since May 2016.

“This is a red letter day that enhances the experience of a patient, having to undergo anaesthesia whether local or general. It is a much safer product to deliver, patient satisfaction goes through the roof, and we also decrease the burden of taking up bed space, so it is a win-win situation for all,” he said.

The unit would provide treatments for gastro intestinal, thoracic and urological conditions. When before patients were required to be admitted to the hospital, now they could have same day surgery.

Deyalsingh said since the Endoscopy Suite was commissioned last year, more than 1,600 procedures have been performed.

“This would significantly reduce the demand for bed space, but we are still challenged for bed space and that is why we have to build the Pt Fortin Hospital, Arima Hospital and expand the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The PoSGH central block would increase from 400 to 540 beds.

“We are building a hospital in Sangre Grande to take it from 150 to 200 beds. With the NCD (non-communicable diseases) burdens and other diseases, there will be a demand for bed space, so we have to look for innovative ways to decrease it,” the minister said.

Deyalsingh said this was the first endoscopy series that offered eight services. He said they had limited endoscopy services at some of the other regional health authorities and were trying out the system at the other RHAs.

“We will use this as a pilot. It is a cost effective way of delivering high-quality care at very low cost,” he said. Chief executive officer at the EW MSC Davlin Thomas said the initial cost of the equipment to treat with these health issues cost just over $1 million.

“It is certainly smaller than the cost of having to do surgeries or having overnight care with the surgical team that was required.

We saw ten patients today, so on average we see about 50 patients a week,” he said.

Deyalsingh said since the programme was started over 1,600 patients have been treated.

Asked why EW MSC was chosen as compared to PoSGH or San Fernando, Deyalsingh said, “We have space and we have the catchment area where people need this type of service. We could not have done it in PosGH knowing that we had to build a new central block there, so this was the obvious location,” he said. Asked if EW MSC was being fully utilised, Deyalsingh said he “believed so”, however adding that Government had “serious plans” for the health facility.

“All of that has to be approved by Cabinet. One of the things we need to look at is if we need to be triplicating serious tertiary intervention all over the island.

Trinidad and Tobago is small, we keep forgetting that and the way health services are being delivered now and should be delivered, instead of triplicating and quadruplicating advanced tertiary intervention at four hospitals, what you want to do is set up centres of excellence and that has been my thought pattern since I became Minister of Health,” he said.

The minister added that he would be looking at all options and advising Cabinet on how to proceed with the Couva Children’s Hospital. “We are looking for a way to best utilise it.

The Prime Minister when approving the note for rebuilding central block we were looking for all ways of recanting central block which has 400 beds and looking to Couva as a possibility.